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Decline and Renewal: American World War II Interventionists
| Article
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12241 |
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Section : |
Modern Though
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| Issue
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2 / 1987 |
5,704 Words |
| Author
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Stephen J. Sniegoski
Stephen J. Sniegoski is subscription editor of Continuity and
has recently competed a monograph on World War II
interventionists. |
In the period between the outbreak of World War II in Europe in September 1939 and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the term "interventionist" referred to those Americans who believe that it was more important for the United States to insure British victory over Germany than it was to keep out of the European war. It applied both to individuals who advocated direct American military involvement and those who hoped to achieve a British victory by aid short of war, which was the official policy of the Roosevelt administration. Since the United Sates ultimately entered the war as a result of the Japanese attack, it may seem striking that public interest was focused largely on the European war.
The American public's view of foreign relations in the 1930s, as well as actual U.S. foreign policy during that period, reflected an attitude commonly called isolationism. Isolationism meant that the United States would neither join entangling foreign alliances nor intervene in European affairs.
After the outbreak of the war in Europe, the United States move slowly toward a position of aiding the Allies. President Roosevelt publicly claimed that aid to Britain (and by mid-1941 to China and the Soviet Union) would keep the United States out of the war by enabling Britain to resist Germany.
Numerous proponents of an interventionist policy sought to rouse public support for that policy in the press and on the airwaves. In fact, the period between 1939 and 1941 saw a virtual media war between supporters and critics of intervention. Interventionism was espoused by some of the leading media figures of the period. Among them were Henry R. Luce, editor
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